GoTView PCI DVD tuner: TV plus MPEG2 hardware encoding. Testing the tuner and working with software

Introduction

Have you ever wondered what your computer is missing? Every time I go to a computer market or any store, the same thought comes to me: What else could I buy for my computer? On this moment My computer has a good configuration, an original case, an excellent monitor, a comfortable keyboard and mouse, the only thing I'm missing is something multimedia that turns my EZ-Buddie into a real home entertainment center. To solve this problem I used one very interesting solution, provided to me for testing by GoTView - an internal PCI TV tuner of the same name.

At first sight...

To be honest, while I knew about this tuner only in words, and in very general terms, my attitude towards it was as pessimistic as towards other tuners I have tested.

The fact is that for the most part, the picture quality obtained with most tuners is not so good as to make me give up the TV.

So, having received this small, superbly designed box, on the way to the editorial office, I studied in detail what was written on it. On the box I found everything that made me start studying GOTVIEW PCI in more detail with great interest.

In general, one can say no less about the thoroughness of preparing the box than about the device itself. The most important thing is that on the way home, each of you becomes fully familiar with the capabilities of the device, as well as the features of use and connection.

The board itself does not have any striking features, with the exception of a large number of different connectors on the back side, and a large Russian-language sticker on the radio module.

In addition to the board in the box, we found a very brief installation guide software and a little about installing and connecting the board itself, a CD on which all the necessary software is recorded, including 70 page instructions for installing the program and its operation in PDF format. L licensed disk with software from Intervideo, which allows you to do video editing. The disk contains two programs: WinDVR (for video capture) and WinDVD Creator in Russian (for video editing).

Also in the box there is a cable for transmitting audio accompaniment to the sound card, remote control remote control, miniature IR receiver and FM antenna.

InstallationGOTVIEW PCI

The process of installing the GOTVIEW PCI TV tuner is a little more complicated than installing a PCI sound card or modem. First of all, you need to install the board itself into a free PCI slot. In our case, the board was installed in an EZ-Buddie barebone case, which has a single PCI slot.

It's no secret that due to the limited internal space of barebone platforms, problems may arise when installing various boards. In our case, there were no problems, and the nearby FX5600 video card with a fairly powerful cooler will allow us to evaluate the impact of direct flow of warm air on the TV tuner, as well as the consequences of installing an additional PCI card for our video card.

After installing the tuner into the computer, you get something similar on the back side.

Before we continue with the installation process, let's look at what connectors are available on the TV tuner. On the right there are connectors for connecting FM and TV antennas, then there is a small connector for connecting IR port, regular video/audio and SVIDEO inputs required for connection external sources audio/video signal, and finally audio output.

Continuing the installation process, you need to connect a small adapter cable from the audio output of the tuner to the line input of the sound card. This is necessary for transmission sound signal into the computer while maintaining high quality.

Having connected all the necessary cables, you can begin installing the software, thanks to which you can implement all those features that will not make you regret purchasing this tuner.

The software installation process begins with installation in automatic mode necessary drivers and programs. During the installation I encountered a strange problem. After installation, the tuner refused to play TV and FM programs. The problem turned out to be incomplete installation of drivers for all devices necessary for GOTVIEW PCI to work.

To solve the problem, I used a very simple and familiar method - I simply deleted all unknown devices in the device manager. After rebooting, Windows XP automatically detected the missing devices and installed them one by one. As a result, everything worked and four new devices appeared in the system, serving various functions of the tuner.

The program itself that serves the tuner, despite its fairly simple interface, has truly enormous capabilities. Before I look at them in detail, I would like to draw your attention to the Russified interface of the program, which makes it easier to work with the program, and the readiness of settings for working in Russian ethereal networks. The program interface consists of two windows: the main control window and the TV screen itself.

The main working window of the program includes all the necessary functions that allow you to control the tuner.

As you can see at the top of the floor with the GOTVIEW logo there is a frequency ruler that allows you to fine-tune the frequency in 0.01 MHz increments. To the right of the frequency there are two arrows that allow you to move between preset frequencies (stations), but for faster movement it is best to use the wheel on the mouse or simply the up and down arrows on the keyboard. Next to these buttons there is a description of the selected mode and the signal source (TV/AV/SVIDEO). Finally, on the right side is the volume control. By the way, you can also change the volume using the right and left buttons on the keyboard.

Now let's move to the bottom of the main window. Here on the left side there are brightness, contrast, saturation and color controls, which allow you to change these parameters on the fly when watching TV or video. Next are four function buttons. This is where I would like to dwell in more detail. The first button is responsible for “capturing” data. The GOTVIEW PCI TV tuner allows you to capture video (AVI), audio (WAV/MP3 and other formats) and “Snapshot”, which allows you to take a snapshot of the TV/Video screen.

The capture function is designed in such a way that not only professional users, but also beginners can use it. For example, video capture (AVI/MPEG1/2). This window contains everything you may need during the recording process.

The user can change various video and audio recording parameters, as well as specify the time and date of start/end of recording and recording duration. For example, when using the DIVX5 codec, we were able to record a video lasting 30 seconds and with a volume of 5.7Mb.

The audio capture mode includes significantly fewer features, which, in principle, are enough to record from your favorite radio stations.

And finally, the “Snapshot” mode allows you to record the screen contents into a graphic file (BMP, JPEG and GIF) with a resolution of up to 768x576. The user can set the capture mode to be every n seconds (default is set to every 3 seconds).

Let's move on. To the right of the “capture” button there is a station search button. As you can see, the search function is implemented as conveniently as possible for the user, allowing you to specify not only the name of the station or channel, which is displayed in the title of the main program window and the TV window, but also individually set the system, volume, contrast, warmth and color.

By default, the program comes with preinstalled channels, however, in our case, not all channels matched, so we had to search for channels.

The search process itself turned out to be much simpler than on regular TV. You just need to set the scanning range, step and system. In principle, you don’t have to install anything; the program already knows everything.

For additional convenience and solving some specific problems, the program has a built-in scheduler that allows you to plan viewing and recording of the programs you need. For example, you can automate the process of recording news in automatic mode. Or, knowing the program, establish the sequence of viewing and recording channels. In addition, at the bottom of the scheduler window there is a function to automatically exit the program and turn off the computer.

And finally, the last button is tuner settings. There are a number of useful functions here that allow you to further configure some tuner parameters.

Among the most useful, I want to mention the permission setting. This function may be needed when starting the tuner for the first time. So, for example, when I first started it, this picture appeared.

After changing the resolution, or rather the encoding scheme to YUY2, everything worked fine.

In addition, we want to note the “Sound Source” option, where you can set which sound card connector the tuner audio output is connected to.

At work...

Unlike previously tested external tuners, this internal version has a lot of capabilities and allows you to solve a wide variety of problems. For example, the ability to watch TV in a window in parallel with working in the application I need, for example MS Word or IE, turned out to be very useful for me, and when I want to watch TV normally, I expand the window to full screen (double click on the TV screen). Another example is for those who want to have documented evidence of the events shown, for example, people involved in analyzing or preparing reports on current events. Using the “Snapshot” function you can get a good selection of photos from the current news release.

And the last example is related to the ability to record video and audio content on the fly. For example, according to TV channel show a movie that you would like to have in your movie collection. You simply select the desired format, provide the required space on your hard drive and record. The same can be said about a song you like on the radio.

Finishing the conversation about the operation of the tuner, I would like to remember about stability. Let me remind you that in my barebone case, the tuner is located very close to the video card. This, on the one hand, noticeably heats up the card, on the other hand, it limits the flow of air to the graphics card, which, theoretically, can lead to problems, however, during use, I did not notice any problems either when watching TV or in complex 3D games.

About quality...

The quality of reception depends primarily on the quality of the receiving antenna used. We didn't notice any problems at all when receiving FM stations, but our TV let us down somewhat. Although the picture quality was quite comparable to regular TV, I was never able to get the digital quality of satellite TV.

Conclusion...

In conclusion, I would like to once again note the unique capabilities of the new tuner, such as high quality reception of both TV and FM channels, the ability to view in a window and in full screen and impressive service functions that allow you to create video, audio and graphic content. If all this is correlated with the recommended price of ~$70, then it turns out that GOTVIEW PCI can really replace several important devices at once for quite reasonable money.

P.S. I almost forgot to remind you once again about the software, which is optimized for Russian broadcasting and allows both a professional and a novice user to work without problems.

We thank the coordination office of GOTVIEW, www.gotview.ru. For consultations, please call in Moscow: 284-1053, 287-9648

Introduction

I think no one will argue with me that today the Russian market is saturated with TV tuners for personal computers. For any computer and for every taste - internal, external, standalone - they all have similar functionality, often common advantages and disadvantages. We can talk endlessly about bad TV tuners. After all, when buying such a device from an unknown manufacturer, the user risks encountering not only low-quality software, but also the lack of support for the SECAM format, which is used to broadcast most television channels in Russia today. As a result, you will have to enjoy only black and white images. No matter how strange it may seem, this is a very common situation. And we can talk about non-working drivers and inconvenient software for days on end.

When talking about good TV tuners, you immediately think of reputable manufacturers Aver, Pinnacle and Prolink (PixelView). During their presence on the Russian market, these companies have done everything to ensure that their products become the standard of quality. But today these three will have to make room, because new company, a new name in the TV tuner industry - GoTView, whose tuners were specially developed taking into account the specifics of the Russian user and Russian broadcasting. We meet the first TV tuners for Russian roads from GoTView! Today, the GoTView line of TV tuners includes two models - internal with PCI interface and external, stand-alone, connecting between the monitor and the computer. In this review, we will look at the internal GoTView PCI tuner version with a built-in FM receiver.

GoTView PCI

A small cardboard box with a rather simple design somehow did not fit into the general mass of other computer hardware boxes. Probably because the box design was done entirely in Russian. Although this localization seemed unusual, it left a very good impression.

Inside the box are:

• The GoTView PCI TV tuner itself
• Remote control
• T-shaped radio antenna
• Audio cable for connecting the tuner to the sound card
• IR receiver (eye) for remote control
• Instructions for installing a TV tuner
• Two CDs with software

Before moving on to a more detailed examination of the TV tuner itself, I suggest you familiarize yourself with its characteristics and understand what all the delights of localization are of this device for a Russian user.

Characteristics of the GoTView PCI TV tuner

• Interface - PCI, 32-bit
• Chip - Conexant BT878
• 125-channel analog block manufactured by TCL
• Supports PAL/SECAM/NTSC standards for TV broadcasting
• FM stereo decoder for radio playback
• Extended range of VHF-FM radio broadcasts

Connectors:

• Coaxial connector for TV antenna
• Coaxial connector for FM antenna
• Composite RCA video input
• S-Video video input
• Line stereo audio input

Software features

• Ability to scan a specified range with a specified step
• Adjustment of channel frequency in 0.01 MHz steps with the ability to enter a specific wavelength value
• Preset settings for the main channels of Russian television and radio
• Individual picture and sound settings for each channel
• Selecting the resolution for preview and full screen viewing
• Ability to capture individual frames in BMP, GIF and JPEG formats with resolutions from 80x60 to 768x576 at the touch of a button or on a timer
• Capture video images in resolutions from 80x60 to 768x576. Ability to set timer recording
• Capture and encode audio with any codec installed on the system
• Ability to set application priority when capturing
• Ability to play recorded AVI and WAV files without exiting the program, as well as directly during recording
• Full capture information:
  • size and duration of the captured fragment
  • free disk space
  • possible recording time based on available free disk space
  • number of frames captured and dropped
• A video editing program from InterVideo with great editing capabilities and a wide range of professional capabilities. Completely in Russian.
• Automatic saving of settings.
• Possibility of reserving disk space for recording a fragment.

Many of the software features are unique to GoTView tuners. Those who do not record programs from television and radio on a computer will never need many of them, but fine-tuning channels and searching with a given step will clearly appeal to those users who are in an area of ​​​​uncertain reception of high-frequency signals. We'll look in more detail at some of the capabilities of the tuner software a little later, but for now it's time to take a closer look at the device itself.

The TV tuner itself is made on a printed circuit board coated with dark brown varnish. The board is quite small in size - its length does not extend beyond the contacts of the PCI slot. The board panel is golden in color and contains the following connectors (from top to bottom):

FM antenna

TV antenna

Jack for connecting an IR sensor

RCA video input

TV input jack

Line audio input

S-Video video input

Line audio output

To the right of the sockets located on the board socket, the tuner has two four-pin connectors for connecting a sound card via internal input and output.

Thus, the sound card can be connected to the tuner using standard audio cables from a CD-ROM. The presence of such internal connectors can be considered an advantage of the board, because at least modern conditions nothing prevents you from transmitting sound via the PCI bus, but in the case when you need to transmit the audio stream directly through a sound card, such a connection is more convenient than using a cable through the sockets on the tuner and sound card bracket.

The heart of the TV tuner is the Conexant Fusion 878A chip. In general, this is almost a standard solution for modern TV tuners. This endcoder has proven itself well over the past years and today is already that “old, good, proven” solution that can be used without fear of consequences.

The analog TV tuner unit is manufactured by TCL. By today's standards, of course, it looks a little anachronistic, since on modern TV tuners the analog blocks are several times smaller, but this is not a reason for concern. This analog unit combines a television and radio receiver and, as we will see later, copes with its task perfectly.

As befits any normal tuner, GoTView PCI has a control panel that operates on IR rays. True, this remote control, unlike many others, is very convenient. The remote control is powered by two AAA batteries. Oddly enough, against the backdrop of the total Russification of the TV tuner, the remote control is distinguished by English-language inscriptions. Although, if you think about it, how, for example, can you translate the signature “Sleep” or “Mute”? These words are already so familiar to our Russian users that it’s time to include them in the explanatory dictionary of the Russian language.

Some expensive TV tuners and combiner boards, which combine a powerful 2D/3D accelerator with tuner functions, use radio wave-based control panels. There is nothing to say - this solution is very convenient, but the remote control in this case will cost much more, and we are talking about a tuner for the Russian market, and here the price is of great importance. Therefore, to control the tuner in GoTView PCI, we use infrared rays that are already familiar to us.

The IR ray sensor connects directly to the TV tuner board and can be placed anywhere on the computer case. In the kit for the GoTView remote control, we did not find a sticker for fixing the sensor on the computer, but the fact is that the GoTView PCI tuner had been in some other test laboratories before us, so it’s possible that the sticker was lost somewhere because they didn’t want to I wish they “deliberately” forgot to put it in the box for the tuner.

Installation and testing

After installing the TV tuner into a free PCI slot and booting the system, you need to install drivers and software. Under the operating room we use Windows system XP drivers installed themselves when you installed the CD in CD-ROM drive. Installation of the program for receiving television and radio programs is also done with a few keystrokes.

As software, GoTView offers us software based on the best program for TV tuners - Fly DS. The original program, adopted by thousands of users around the world as an alternative to the viewers that come with default tuners, has been redesigned by GoTView programmers specifically for this tuner.

This program already contains frequencies of Russian television channels and FM radio stations. That is, after installing the tuner, you most likely will not have to go through the procedure of scanning and sorting channels. Although, this is not a fact, because if your TV programs are broadcast on cable TV, you will have to scan the entire range. True, scanning here is at the highest level. You can scan the entire frequency range, as well as a selected one, with a specified step. For each channel, you can manually set the frequency with an accuracy of 0.01 MHz. Here you can also adjust the sound volume and brightness, contrast, warmth and color saturation for each channel individually.

A special task scheduler will help you organize turning on and recording TV programs at the right time. Here you select the channel, date and time when the tuner will be turned on and the duration of its operation or capture. It’s very convenient, by the way, so as not to overwork yourself on the computer and not miss your favorite series. True, when capturing video in this way, you do not display any statistics on the capture and you may not even know whether the recording is being made to the hard drive or not.

But manual capture, called by one press of a button, is replete with settings. Here you can reserve disk space for the next video file, select the resolution, apply filters, change the quality of video and audio compression, and also receive full statistics by capture - at what frame rate the recording is taking place and how many frames are missed. There is a loading indicator at the bottom of the video capture window central processor system and if the load is high, you can manually increase the priority of the recording program.

Impression

Our test laboratory carried out cable television, so the preset frequencies of Russian TV channels turned out to be useless and we had to scan the entire range. The scanning was carried out with a minimum step, so it took quite a long time. Of course, if you don’t have a lot of time, you can reduce the scanning step, but we were in no hurry. As a result, the TV tuner found all available channels and even a couple of those that the existing one did not find Samsung TV, which, according to the manufacturer, was also adapted to Russian broadcasting specifics. I was very pleased with such a high sensitivity of the tuner, because more channels were available on the computer than on the TV.

The image quality produced by the tuner was also pleasing. Fine-tuning the channel frequencies helped minimize noise on the channels where there was noise. Video capture and compression also did not cause any complaints. The abundance of settings and convenience of the software allows you to maintain the same balance when convenience is not put at the expense of functionality.

As for radio broadcasts, as a rule, there are no complaints about radio tuners and GoTView is no exception. The tuner received VHF channels and to receive them there was no need to launch a separate module or separate program- in the viewer, just switch the channel and the computer will turn from a TV into a radio.

conclusions

A TV tuner optimized for the Russian user will have a great future in our country. High sensitivity of the analogue unit, high-quality software, complete Russification and a set of unique features - this is what a tuner for Russian roads should be like.

No flaws were found in GoTView during testing. Perhaps the WinDVD Creator program for editing and creating your own video collection is less convenient than Pinnacle Studio 8. But again, Pinnacle comes bundled with inexpensive tuners trial version Studio programs 7 or Studio 8 with a 30-day validity period, and GoTView comes with a full licensed version of WinDVD Creator in Russian. True, if you wish, you can purchase any installation software on the Russian market.

Summing up all of the above, we can state the fact that such whales of the TV tuner market as Aver, Pinnacle and Prolink (PixelView) will still have to move up and share a place on the pedestal with the newcomer GoTView.

Mikhail Degtyarev (aka LIKE OFF)
02/10.2003

TV tuners GoTView PCI 7135 and GoTView PCI DVD

Maxim Babenkov

The Taiwanese company GOTVIEW specializes in the development and production of multimedia products and peripherals for desktop and laptop computers. The company's line of multimedia products includes devices for receiving television and radio signals on a computer TV-FM tuners, as well as TV tuners with additional capabilities for capturing and digitizing images.

The company has been present on the Russian market for two years, but in such a short time it has already proven itself quite well, since its products are of high quality, well-equipped, functional software and fully adapted to the conditions of Russian television broadcasting.

In this article we will focus on just two internal models of GoTView TV tuners with a PCI interface: GoTView PCI 7135 and GoTView PCI DVD.

The first model of the TV tuner GoTView PCI 7135 is made on a purple PCB and has a gold-plated strip. This style is traditional for all TV tuners of the company.

The GoTView PCI 7135 model is built on a Philips SAA7135HL decoder. The bulk of the chip's radioelements are located in close proximity to it. The board contains several large and small capacitors (LC filters), which serve to eliminate interference arising from other elements inside the computer, as well as from power supply interference.

The Philips SAA7135HL video/audio decoder processes PAL/SECAM/NTSC signals and supports A2 and NICAM stereo broadcast formats. The decoder also provides advanced audio processing and allows audio to be digitized at sampling rates up to 48 kHz. In addition, the decoder supports various effects such as Virtual Dolby Surround and Dolby Surround Prologic.

The third generation Philips FM1216ME/I H-3 unit is used as a high-frequency block in GoTView PCI 7135, which supports PAL/SECAM/NTSC format signals in the frequency range from 48.25 to 855.25 MHz. Most modern TV tuners are equipped with a similar high-frequency unit.

The device allows you to implement traditional functions such as capturing video with sound, as well as receiving FM radio stations in stereo mode.

The following connectors are located on the back of the GoTView PCI 7135: two antenna inputs (one for connecting TV antenna, and the other for the radio antenna), 2 mm jack for connecting an IR receiver, composite and S-Video video input, audio input and audio output. The strip with connectors, like in many other models of the company, has a golden color.

In addition to the traditional audio connectors on the rear panel, the GoTView PCI 7135 is additionally equipped with internal audio input and audio output connectors. These connectors are useful primarily when connecting a TV tuner to a sound card, which allows you to leave the external line input of the sound card free. Audio input and output connectors are located on the outside of the printed circuit board, which simplifies device switching. We emphasize that in some cases there is no need to connect via these connectors, since the GoTView PCI 7135 TV tuner also transmits sound via the PCI bus.

The GoTView PCI 7135 TV tuner is equipped with a remote control, which, in addition to working with the TV tuner itself, allows you to control various multimedia applications. The presented remote control differs from the remote control that was included with previously released TV tuner models. Thus, the new remote control has an increased number of buttons and a more thoughtful placement of them, and in addition, the remote control buttons can be programmed using the utility supplied in the kit.

The GoTView PCI 7135 package includes a remote control with batteries, an IR receiver for remote control, an FM antenna, a mini-jackmini-jack audio cable and an audio cable for connecting the tuner's audio output to an external line-in input motherboard or sound card, user manual in Russian and two CDs with InterVideo WinDVD Creator 2 video editor in Russian and GoTView PRO software.

GoTView PCI 7135 is one of the best TV tuners among similar models on the market today. A well-designed board using high-quality components provides excellent image and sound quality, and also allows reliable reception of various video signals.

The second of the TV tuner models under consideration, GoTView PCI DVD, differs from the first not only functionally, but also externally. Printed circuit board, as emphasized above, is also made in purple, but in terms of size it is much inferior to the GoTView PCI 7135 card, especially in width.

The GoTView PCI DVD TV tuner is based on Philips SAA7174HL and CONEXANT CX23416 chips, which allows video capture and compression into MPEG format with a bit rate of up to 15 Mbit/s and an audio sampling rate of up to 48 kHz. PAL/SECAM/NTSC standards and A2 and NICAM stereo broadcast formats are supported. The main difference between the Philips SAA7174 decoder and the Philips SAA7135 is the absence of a PCI interface, the function of which in the TV tuner is performed by another chip CONEXANT CX23416. This chip serves as a hardware MPEG1/2 codec for video and audio streams. In addition, the CX23416 has a hardware noise reduction filter, which removes noise from the video image and increases the MPEG compression ratio. On back side The printed circuit board contains one HY57V643220CT-6 memory chip manufactured by Hynix Semiconductor, which serves as a buffer for the MPEG stream. The specifications of this chip are as follows: voltage 3.3 V, operating frequency 166 MHz, four banks of 512 Kbit each

for MPEG stream

The third generation Philips MK3 unit is used as a high-frequency block in GoTView PCI DVD, which supports PAL/SECAM/NTSC format signals in the frequency range from 48.25 to 855.25 MHz. Unlike the model described above, the GoTView PCI DVD TV tuner uses a high-frequency unit without an FM receiver Philips MK3 1216.

The main capabilities of the device include support for terrestrial and cable television, ample opportunities to search and configure channels, the ability to capture real-time video in MPEG-2 format with a resolution of up to 720×480, capture frames in various graphic formats etc. Other features of the GoTView PCI DVD model include high-quality image processing with noise reduction and deinterlacing filters with normal and double frequencies. I would especially like to note that the program uses the hardware capabilities of modern video cards to process images with deinterlacing filters, which can significantly reduce the CPU load.

On the back of the GoTView PCI DVD there is a composite video input, an IR receiver socket for the remote control, an antenna TV input,

S-Video input and audio input.

The traditional analog audio output is not implemented in this model at all, which, however, is not surprising. Sound transmission is carried out only via the PCI bus, as a result of which there is no need to equip the device with an audio cable to connect the tuner to the sound card. However, the GoTView PCI DVD includes another audio cable for connecting external sources, which has a mini-jack plug on one side and two RCA plugs on the other. This cable is convenient for connecting various video cameras and a VCR to the tuner.

The GoTView PCI DVD remote control is completely different from the first model. First of all, the remote control is very flat and equipped with a large number of buttons - their number reaches 37 pieces. In addition, the buttons are touch sensitive, which prevents dirt and dust from entering. Tactile sensations when pressing buttons allow you to accurately assess whether a key was actually pressed. In general, we can say that the remote control is compact, and in addition, it is lightweight and functional. Frequently used buttons for changing volume and switching channels are located very well on the remote control. The remote control is powered by a 3 V lithium cell.

In our opinion, the GoTView PCI DVD TV tuner can be considered the most simple solution for digitizing both television channels and video signals from home video cameras and VCRs. The advantages of a TV tuner include the fact that during the digitization process a hardware noise reduction filter will be used, which will slightly improve the quality of the digitized signal.

An added benefit is that GoTView PCI DVD can run Windows MCE 2005, something that few tuner manufacturers currently boast. If you have two or three GoTView PCI DVD tuners in this OS, you can schedule multiple channels to be recorded simultaneously.

The GoTView PCI DVD package includes a remote control with a battery, an IR receiver for remote control, an FM antenna, an audio cable for connecting various audio sources (mini-jackRCA), a user manual in Russian and two CDs -disc with InterVideo WinDVD Creator 2 video editor and GoTView PRO software.

Now let's briefly talk about the software that comes with both models of GoTView TV tuners, and about its functionality. The GoTView PRO 4.0.0.475 program has a number of interesting and unique functions, including, for example, PIP (picture in picture), which allows you to watch two channels simultaneously if you have a second tuner. The ability to separately record audio and video streams greatly facilitates and speeds up video editing, and also helps to avoid the use of additional software. A unique feature of the program is support for third-party Direct Show (DS) and DirectX Media Objects (DMO) filters, designed for additional image and sound processing.

The Motion Detection function allows you to use the device as a video surveillance system. To do this, just connect a video camera to the tuners, which will record the monitored area. Thanks to support for an unlimited number of skins, the appearance of the program is quite easy to change.

Installing device drivers and software does not cause any difficulties, especially if you follow the installation sequence, as well as the recommendations specified in the user manual.

The main window of the GoTView PRO program contains buttons for switching TV channels, buttons for setting the reception frequency, a button for displaying all channels in a separate window that opens, a video capture button, a scheduler button, a button for updating the TV program via the Internet, and a settings button. There is also a display that displays various information, such as channel number, channel name, current time, audio mode, television standard and much more. The main window also contains sliders for setting the overall sound and separately for channel sound, brightness, contrast and saturation.

The software allows you to capture frames in BMP, JPEG and GIF formats with a resolution of up to 768x576, record audio and video streams with compression capabilities (for this, audio and video codecs must be installed in the system). Various functions are also supported, such as channel preview and Time Shift the latter allows you to simultaneously record and playback video.

Of all the other features of the program, we note the functions used to configure the interface, video and audio signals, remote control buttons, display menus and indicators in windowed and full-screen modes, as well as to control the program using keyboard hot keys.

In general, we can say that the software shell has very rich functionality and currently is one of the best, perfectly complementing and realizing all the capabilities of the device’s hardware.

The editors express gratitude to GOTVIEW ( http://www.gotview.ru )for the provided TV tuners GoTView PCI 7135 and GoTView PCI DVD.

Recently, it has been very pleasant to observe the tendency of IT companies to adapt their products to Russian-speaking users. Today you won’t surprise anyone with a Russian interface in software, Russian menus in monitors, Russian inscriptions on the boxes of various components and user manuals for the “great and mighty”.

But if you look at such a class of products as TV tuners, it becomes clear that some of them have gone much further in this very noble cause. For example, the well-known company AverMedia has long been producing specially adapted products for the Russian market, which, however, also turn out to be perfectly optimized for many other countries of the former Union of Indestructibles.

Another manufacturer that produces TV tuners with the inscription on the boxes “Adapted for Russian TV broadcasting” is the GOTVIEW company. Its solutions are also in wide demand. It is worth noting that this is not due to the low price (it is exactly at the level of competitors), but to the high quality of workmanship and excellent software.

Today we got our hands on the GOTVIEW PCI 7135 TV tuner. Judging by the numerous reviews, it is a very good product. However, it is always better to verify something yourself to be sure. This is what we are going to do next. So let's get started.

GOTVIEW PCI 7135

GOTVIEW PCI 7135 is more new version the previously presented PCI 7134 model. There are not many differences between them. In particular, we can highlight another Philips MK3 RF unit, which replaced TCL. In addition, PCI 7135 uses a new chip from Philips, the model of which is included in the name of the tuner in question. It has advanced audio processing capabilities, but we will talk about this in more detail below.

Contents of delivery

PCI 7135 comes in a small box containing quite good equipment. In particular, the following components can be distinguished:

• the TV tuner itself;
• remote control;
• batteries for the remote control in AAA format;
• infrared port for remote control;
• radio antenna;
• cable for external connection To sound card;
• cable for internal connection to the sound card;
• CD with proprietary software;
• CD with WinDVD Creator 2;
• user manual in Russian.

The equipment is very, very good. It is especially worth noting the presence of two cables for connecting to the sound card, as well as the presence of a second CD on which the WinDVD Creator 2 program is located. GOTVIEW completes all its TV tuners with it, and this one is no exception. This application is used for video editing and DVD creation. For example, it can be used to create relevant content from material recorded from the tuner.

The remaining elements of the package do not deserve special attention - they are standard for most TV tuners.

Specifications and Design

GOTVIEW PCI 7135 has standard dimensions for this class of devices. The printed circuit board will protrude beyond the PCI slot by only a few millimeters.

Directly on the PCB there is a Philips MK3 RF unit, a Philips SAA7135HL ADC, as well as two internal audio connectors. And now more details about each.

The Philips MK3 RF unit was installed to improve reception quality compared to the 7134 model, which had a TCL2002MB-33F unit.

The Philips SAA7135HL ADC, which the company decided to use in this solution, has some features in comparison with other chips of a similar class. In particular, it supports decoding of all modern stereo audio standards:

Dolby ProLogic support;

• Virtual Dolby Surround (simulation of 4-channel sound);
• Philips Incredible Mono (pseudo-stereo for mono channels, surround effect);
• Philips Incredible Stereo (stereo sound enhancement).

This can be considered one of its advantages.

Of particular note is the presence of internal audio connectors. Today it is very rare to find such a solution on the market. Their presence makes it possible not to use the linear input of the sound card for sound transmission, which can sometimes be very useful. In addition, as is clear from the part of the article that talks about the configuration, the TV tuner is equipped with a special cable for internal connection. GOTVIEW PCI 7135 can also transmit an audio signal via PCI bus, which eliminates the need for a direct connection to a sound card, and also eliminates desynchronization of audio and video when recording broadcasts and digitizing video material.

As for the front panel, the following connectors are located on it (from left to right):

• FM antenna connector;
• connector for connecting a television antenna;
• connector for connecting an infrared port;
• four-pin S-Video input;
• audio input;
• composite video input;
• audio output

Now let's briefly summarize the main specifications of GOTVIEW PCI 7135:

• support for resolutions up to 768x576;
• extended radio range from 66 MHz;
• support for television standards PAL/SECAM/NTSC, VHF, DM and cable channels are received;
• fine-tuning mode with the smallest possible step, as well as entering a specific wavelength value for a given TV or radio program;
• individual settings for each channel;
• ability to configure up to 255 TV and radio channels;
• capture TV window frames in BMP, GIF, JPG format by timer or by pressing a button (with a resolution from 80x60 to 768x576);
• deferred task manager for recording video at a specified time;
• capture and encode audio with any codec installed in the system;
• TimeShift function;
• downloading TV program guides and various ways display on the screen (if Internet is available)
• Picture-in-Picture (PIP) function if there are two or more video capture devices in the system;
• network broadcast;
• security functions (motion detection in the frame, video recording or frame capture).

Well, I must say - quite good. GOTVIEW once again shows that its products are really good. But how do they behave in practice? We will try to answer this question further.

Software

Installing drivers and software is quick and without any problems. If, nevertheless, some questions may arise, it is very likely that the answers to them will be found in the detailed documentation in Russian, which is supplied with the TV tuner on a CD.

When you first launch the GoTView Pro software that comes with GOTVIEW tuners, a control panel appears on the screen with appearance"a la Winamp". As it turned out, the proprietary software supports changing skins and the default one was called TVAmp. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Returning to the control panel, it is worth noting that it allows you to set some parameters, thereby eliminating the need to search for them through the jungle of settings. For example, you can adjust the channel frequency, switch the signal receiving system, switch the video input, and also adjust the brightness, contrast, color “warmth”, volume of sound sources and some other parameters.

Setting up channels can be done by selecting the "TV channels" item from context menu, which appears when you right-click on any of the software windows, or by clicking the “channels” button on the main control panel. The TV tuner can store information about 255 channels. In addition, not only their frequency is saved, but also the parameters of sound, image, and effect settings for each of them. Moreover, you can assign your own icon to each channel for better recognition.

It is worth adding that initially there are 18 pre-configured channels. Frequencies are given for terrestrial television Moscow. For other cities, as well as for cable TV, there may be nothing on these frequencies. In this case, you will have to perform an automatic search or configure everything manually if you know their frequencies.

To automatically search, click on the button with black binoculars depicted on it, which is located in the upper left corner of the program. As a result, a window will appear on the screen where you can select search parameters. In particular, you can scan both a given frequency range and the entire one. As an option, you can scan only the standard Russian broadcast grid. But even if you are a resident of this vast country, then if you have any cable or satellite television, you should not use it. Next, click on Scan and wait while the tuner scans the selected range.

The main settings window consists of seven tabs. The first, as you might guess from its name, serves to adjust the quality and parameters of the received image. There are a lot of settings available, which immediately confuses the user. However, over time you get used to it and begin to navigate what’s what. As for the video signal settings itself, you can select its resolution:

In addition, there is the ability to maintain screen proportions, select renderer, color scheme, deinterlacing, noise reduction, full-screen resolution, and so on.

The Sound tab is used to configure the sound signal. You can read all the capabilities provided by the program in the screenshot, and we will only note once again the presence of the sound output function via the PCI bus (enabled by default), as well as the ability to set the sound source

The Interface tab is used to configure the main toolbar of the proprietary software and the behavior of the image output window during operation. Here you can configure the display of the mouse cursor during full-screen viewing, a button on the taskbar, a skin, a shutdown timer, and much more.

The image output window has the ability to display information about the current channel and settings. The OSD tab is responsible for what and how to display it.

I'm very pleased with the ability to configure hot keys for quickly calling up TV channels and other TV tuner functions. And in fact, it’s not always possible to use the remote control for control!

On the Motion Detection tab, you can configure the function of the same name. It works as follows: while receiving a signal, any changes in the frame are monitored, which can be defined as the movement of objects. In this case, the software can perform some specified actions. In particular, you can record video and audio (or one of the two) information at this time.

This feature may be useful if you connect, for example, an outdoor surveillance camera to the tuner. Thus, when movement is detected, on HDD the corresponding portion of time will be recorded while it continues. Well, another plus for PCI 7135.

Image quality

Before we get into the image quality, we note that the preset channels were not found correctly. Only a few matched. Others showed different channels or nothing at all, although later the preset channels were found among those found by the tuner's automatic system. This means that we are not broadcasting directly, but are rebroadcast via cable.

As you can see from the pictures, the Philips MK3 RF unit and the Philips SAA7135HL ADC do their job well: the image is of high quality. True, some extraneous grid is still noticeable on some channels:

However, such an effect was found only on one, which among the available 100 looks minuscule. In addition, if you do not watch this channel constantly, then this problem will not affect you at all.

The sound quality was also not satisfactory. It’s just worth noting that in some cases, when the tuner tried to decode a stereo signal, the latter was not of the highest quality. The result was a switch to mono. However, this may be a consequence weak signal, and when receiving a high-quality stereo signal, such a problem should not arise.

Other options

The gripping function is practically no different from similar implementations in competitor products. Yes, each has its own characteristics, but in general, approximately the same action always occurs - recording the received signal to the hard drive.

In our case, you can set the resolution of the received signal and the resolution of the output file, edge trimming, codec (can be any one present in the system), and apply your own filters when encoding. In addition, it is possible to record according to a schedule. By the way, it is worth noting that for the TimeShift function and scheduled recording to work correctly, you must install the WinDVD program, which was mentioned above. Along with it, the necessary MPEG2 codecs are installed, which are used when activating these features.

Configuring the settings for audio capture is also very simple: you only need to set the compression parameters, the path to the output file and other parameters if necessary.

Capturing a single frame can occur either at a certain specified frequency or one at a time manually. It's nice to be able to choose the file saving format (BMP, JPEG, GIF), as well as the resolution of the captured frame. By the way, when recording a picture in JPEG, you can even specify the compression level.

I really liked the ability to get program guides for preinstalled channels from the Internet. The thing, I must say, is simply amazing. You just need to click on the button Load the database automatically and voila - after 30 seconds (depending on the speed of your Internet connection) you have a TV schedule. You can press the enter button to display the program on the current channel, on all channels, and when switching channels, the name of the program running there, the start and end time, and the percentage of its completion will be displayed in the form of a bar.

When you right-click on the program toolbar and select TV Channels from the drop-down context menu, the entire list of available channels appears, where for channels with a program downloaded from the Internet, the percentage of its completion is displayed! The function, however, is quite simple to implement from a programming point of view (you just need to calculate the time difference, convert it to a percentage and display the result) and, in our opinion, it is very pleasant for the user.

FM tuner

All settings and control of the FM tuner occur in the same way as for TV. Channel search is carried out in the same window (there are also preset stations):

And control and switching of channels can be done on a standard proprietary software control panel. It doesn't change at all when switching to the radio.

Remote control

The included remote control has 34 buttons that are small in size and spaced far enough apart. The latter prevents you from accidentally pressing the wrong button.

I would like to note the possibility of programming any from buttons. You can assign an arbitrary function to each of them.

conclusions

If you read the entire article carefully, it will be easy to guess that the conclusions will be the most positive, because GOTVIEW’s product turned out to be very good. Let's start with the software. Its capabilities are very wide, which allows for great flexibility in using the TV tuner. Just look at the motion tracking feature. True, there are so many settings that at first your eyes just run wild and, frankly speaking, you simply lose the desire to read what each checkbox and switch means :-). But on the other hand, the program implements contextual help, called by pressing the F1 button, in which each menu item you are in is clearly described. So you can figure it out without difficulty, and the abundance of settings significantly expands the functionality of the program.

I would especially like to note the function of downloading the program guide. It will undoubtedly be very useful if you constantly watch TV. I also really liked the ability to customize each button on the remote control.

As for the picture and sound quality, they are excellent. Of course, there are some shortcomings (a grid on some channels, high quality of the incoming signal is required for correct stereo decoding), but we don’t see anything bad in them. And there are no ideal things.

However, we give the GOTVIEW PCI 7135 our highest "Our Choice" award for its very rich software features and high signal quality, and highly recommend it.

We would like to express our gratitude to the Russian representative office of GOTVIEW for providing us with the GOTVIEW PCI 7135 TV tuner for testing.